Tests show elevated levels of dioxin

Reporter: Jonathan Harley

KERRY O'BRIEN: Back home now - and since the very earliest days of European settlement, fishing has played an integral part in the life of Sydney. But in January, locals were shocked when the NSW Government found elevated levels of poisonous dioxins in Sydney Harbour seafood and warned people that it simply wasn't safe to eat. Commercial fishing was banned, but for months the Government insisted that testing for dioxin levels among Sydney Harbour fishermen and their families was unnecessary.

Then, in a dramatic backflip, it provided tests in response to the 7:30 Report's revelations in April that some fishermen and their families had been poisoned as a result of eating the contaminated fish. Now, the results for 95 people are in and the news isn't good. All of them - adults and children - have levels between twice and 10 times the national average. Jonathan Harley reports.

ELAINE PENSABENE: Adults take responsibility for themselves. But adults, we're also responsible for our children. So when unknowingly or unwittingly they end up like this, it's very distressing.

(To children) Make sure the apple goes in first...

I don't know what to say. I don't know myself. So I'm quite confused. But other than, you know ... thank God they're healthy now, they're normal, active kids, I hope. But it's that unknown that worries everybody.

RADIO: Around 100 Sydney Harbour fishermen and their families from today will learn the results of blood testing for dioxin contamination...

JONATHAN HARLEY: This mother of two is heading or for Concord Hospital in Sydney's west. She's one of 95 people about to be presented with some unsettling information - the results of toxicology tests.

ELAINE PENSABENE: Well, after many months of this, we'll find out today - Santo my oldest son's results and having found out earlier about Luca, we're pretty anxious.

NURSE: Just turn your arm for me...

JONATHAN HARLEY: She's right to be worried. Elaine Pensabene and her partner Tony Ianni were part of the 7:30 Report's investigation earlier this year which revealed alarming levels of a toxic group of chemicals called dioxins among Sydney Harbour's commercial fishermen and their families. As part of that exercise, we arranged for blood samples to be taken from them, as well as one of their sons. Luca Ianni is six-years-old.

ELAINE PENSABENE: The reason we chose Luca and not my elder son Santo was that Luca actually eats more seafood than Santo - he just likes it more, eats it more. And I thought if it comes back with a low reading for him, then Santo will be in the clear.

JONATHAN HARLEY: Blood was also taken from 74-year-old fisherman Andrew Crisafi and all four samples were sent to an independent laboratory in Germany for analysis. What came back was startling. Andrew Crisafi had levels 10 times the Australian average. High levels too for Tony Ianni and Elaine Pensabene. But perhaps the most concerning result was for their son. Luca Ianni's dioxin levels were higher than his mother's and at just six years of age he was well above the average reading for an Australian adult.

DR MARK DONOHOE, GENERAL PRACTITIONER: Luca is having to put up with a chemical that we know distorts the signalling of brain cells and their learning of new material.

JONATHAN HARLEY: They were poisoned as a result of eating large amounts of seafood contaminated by decades of industrial pollution in Sydney Harbour. In January, state health authorities announced it was too toxic to eat - the recommended limit the equivalent of just one fish finger a week. But for years, the Iannis had been eating it by the boatload.

TONY IANNI: We, you know, bring two, three kilo of prawns home, boil them up and have with the family, yeah. We all eat boiled prawns.

JONATHAN HARLEY: The NSW Government was steadfastly refusing to provide fishermen and their families with blood tests. The 7:30 Report story jolted a reversal of that policy and today, the results came in. They were no less alarming. All 95 people tested had dioxin levels between two and 10 times the national average. Health authorities did their best to talk down any risk.

REPORTER: Are these people poisoned?

DR KERRY CHANT, NSW DEPUTY CHIEF HEALTH OFFICER: I think the issue is that these people have acquired, have over time consumed dioxin at levels that we now are saying we would recommend you not consume.

JONATHAN HARLEY: Among those digesting the results, Elaine Pensabene. There was more bad news for her other son.

ELAINE PENSABENE: I'm shocked, I'm floored, you know.

JONATHAN HARLEY: Santo Ianni has levels higher than his younger brother, even though he has eaten significantly less seafood.

ELAINE PENSABENE: I still feel in my stomach, I feel like my stomach's gone all funny because I just didn't expect it. I ... I am concerned - for not today and not tomorrow - I can see my kids are healthy. But what about in four or five years time? Who's going to look after us then?

JONATHAN HARLEY: Today's results will only confirm what many people had long feared. The consolation is that at least now they know their dioxin levels. But what they still don't know is exactly what it means.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CHRIS WINDER, TOXICOLOGIST, UNSW: Basically, they're at increased risk of some of the health problems that dioxins cause.

JONATHAN HARLEY: University of NSW toxicologist Chris Winder has been studying dioxins in Sydney Harbour for nearly 20 years.

CHRIS WINDER: They're at increased risk of some soft tissue cancers. They may be at risk from skin disease, they may be at risk from immune system problems.

(To parents) So just going in order from Luca...

JONATHAN HARLEY: Today, the State Government announced that expert advice would be made available to help GPs who are looking after fishing families.

JOHN HATZISTERGOS, NSW HEALTH MINISTER: So we do empathise with people who don't understand the intricacies of what's been involved here. We're anxious to deal with any of those issues.

JONATHAN HARLEY: But as those families get increasingly frustrated, there's building momentum towards litigation.

MICHAEL TOOMA, OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY LAWYER: This is one of those situations where you've got an exposure by employees or by workers to toxins that's had a detriment to their health and safety.

JONATHAN HARLEY: Michael Tooma's a leading occupational health and safety lawyer. He believes that these commercial fishermen are entitled to expect a safe workplace and that the state regulator, WorkCover, should investigate.

MICHAEL TOOMA: In any other circumstance you would expect the regulator, the WorkCover authority, to step in and investigate. It'll be up to the regulator in that context to decide whether there's been breaches of the legislation, but they would investigate it exactly in the same way as they would, as you say, if this was a mine or a private operator.

JONATHAN HARLEY: The state Health Minister says it's not a matter for him.

JOHN HATZISTERGOS: Well it's actually not appropriate for Health to venture opinions on issues such as that for this important reason: that our task is to look after the individuals concerned and their health. And if we're going to address that fairly, accurately and transparently, we need to be in a position where we can honestly say that we have not been in any way influenced by other considerations.

JONATHAN HARLEY: Whatever legal wrangling may unfold, it's unlikely to give Elaine Pensabene the reassurance she seeks. There will be ongoing expert monitoring of her two sons' health and their dioxin levels. For her family and many others, it's the fear of what might happen which weighs on them most heavily.

ELAINE PENSABENE: What do I want? I want the harbour cleaned up, I want this never to have been happened and I want my kids' futures. You know, I feel like our whole, Tony's whole livelihood was taken from him and a question now hangs over the health of our family.

KERRY O'BRIEN: And the problem with that kind of chemical is you don't know how long that that worry might last. Jonathan Harley with that report.